A.N.
Just a quick explanation. This is a transition chapter. More info at the A.N. in the end of the chapter.
Enjoy the story folks! I am grateful that all of you deem this interesting enough to continue reading.
Ruby expected many things when the headmaster recommended the Index Office. First and foremost, her expectation centered around being rejected, yes rejected. The reasoning was easy enough to explain, her reputation. Nuff said. That said... she was quite surprised when one of the member, Johnathan Amsel, was quite accommodating with her. When she let out all the pent up frustration and dried her eyes up, he was patiently listening to here, even went as far as to give her a tea.
When she finished her story, she expected Mister Amsel would offer some nice and encouraging words before ushering her out. And then things happened. His bombastic speech, her acceptance into the Index, the hug, the feast, and then the talk. It was honestly the happiest she had ever been in the last two years. They accepted her with open arms like a family—better yet, they didn't seem to care, or even have an inkling, of her rep before she told them. So yeah, she had found a new family in the most unexpected scenario.
And then a crow came by.
She was not expecting for immediate field operation on her first day on the job honestly. But job is job and Hunters' jobs always came in the most unexpected of moment, like that one time with Professor Ethan's impromptu stealth class. What was more unexpected however, was the revelation Senior Ermessia gave her. That definitely shook her up, especially after her senior revealed the threat level of the current Distortion they were tackling, [Apostle] with the potential of becoming [Devil]. She didn't know how dangerous that was, but [Devil] always has this negative connotation to it.
It was completely rational that her expectation regarding what was inside of the train consisted of dark place with plenty of bloods and mutilated bodies. That expectation came specifically from Senior Johnathan's explanation about the Distortion's ability.
When she entered the train and opened her eyes, a field of snow was completely outside of her brain's imagination. Although, the place was not calm, so her expectation of the place being violent was still true to some degree.
They stood on a rail track; roughly three meters from the right and left side of the track were walls of snow. Well not a wall per se, it was a blizzard so dense that it resembled a wall; a writhing mass of snow that moved violently in one direction. Thankfully, the blizzard couldn't get nearer to the track thanks to the invisible barrier that seemed to exist over there. Lastly, she turned around and discovered their exit to be nonexistent, just a long way ahead that even the rail track wasn't visible anymore.
"What in the Brothers' names?" She decided not to voice her thought and silently gauged the rest of the office. Apparently, they all looked composed while silently judging the current possible threat. "Ah, this is usual for them." How about the crow? She glanced at her leader's head and found the crow tilting it's head around just like the other.
Her leader was the first to actually voice their thought, "Say Ruby, you ever see someone getting mutilated, maimed, or cleanly cut to pieces?"
The newest addition to the Index Office choked on air due to how random the question was, "Ah—hah, yes, I have." Her fist met her chest in an endeavor to steady her breathing before clarifying, "But not directly. It was back in medical class where Professor Silence showed us a footage from the Shelter-46 Incident," Ruby shuddered remembering the images, "Ohhh... the bodies..."
Senior Ermessia nodded in approval, "Good. You have baseline at least. Expect our works to be gory, even this one." Ruby paled, even though her skin tone was already pale. "John, Xiao, any of you brings something sturdy and expendable?" Xiao materialized a bone from her left glove, and Ruby did a double take at it. It was a shinbone, an actual human shinbone. "Stick it into the blizzard and see what happens."
Senior Xiao approached the wall of constantly moving snow followed by Senior John. He stood behind the faunus senior and putting his arms around her torso before solidifying his footing.
"Now Ruby," her leader began, "This is the phase where we figure out the Distortion bit by bit. Pay attention, it might give you insight." The junior nodded and focused on her seniors.
Senior Xiao jabbed the shinbone into the snow. A sharp cracking sound of the bone immediately filled their ears; at the same time, Xiao felt a violent force crashed on the bone and lost her balance due to the suddenness of the impact. That was where Senior John came in. The blond senior immediately yanked Senior Xiao away from the raging snow. Making sure that nothing came out from the snow after a few seconds, Index Office finally reviewed the damage done to the bone. It was cut in half, not cleanly, but violently, as the cracks could attest. "Alright, Blizzard bad. Stay on the track, team." She materialized a binocular and so did Senior John.
Waiting for them to finish observation, Ruby decided to return Harbinger into it's compact form. Her role here was gunner, so she only needed the shotgun part of Harbinger that was accessible even in compact form.
Looking around, she saw Senior Xiao praying again, that wasn't her focus however. Ruby eyed the pair of gauntlets encasing her arms. From them, Ruby deduced her black haired senior to be a very specialized close range fighter due to the simple makeup of the gauntlets; they were literally standard gauntlets with Mistralian dragon motives carved into them. The only part she would consider modern was the rather bulky parts around the forearms and wrists, presumably Dust chambers.
She then shifted to Senior John. He was a close range fighter, well he was the team's tank. His weapon of choice was a sword and shield combo with the shield could turn into sheathe. It was the old-time classic in Ruby's opinion, but she noted some other features on the shield, one of them was a small Dust chamber.
As for Senior Ermessia... Ruby couldn't really decide on her specification since she only had a shotgun resting on her right hand while her left hand being occupied by the binocular. The shotgun was very simple too, it resembled Vale's standard riot gun but with blockier barrel for some reason. She'll settle with generalist as her guess since the office already has two melee specialists.
"I got nothing, John." Senior Ermessia stored her binocular, "How about you?"
"There's a figure roughly two kilometers away. Seems to be a child... but it's surrounded by pillar like structures. Action?"
"We walk of course. John, take point, rest of you in position."
"Ermes, I'd like to give an input."
"Yes Xiao?"
Senior Xiao proceeded to roll her shoulder as her Aura shimmered, a sign that she deactivated her Aura. Everyone raised an eyebrow at this, "Try circulating your Aura and tell me what you feel." The office was confused, but the suggestion came from Xiao so they did it anyway, except for Ruby who still has a confused face, "Trust me Ruby, I'm an Aura Master." Trusting her senior, Ruby finally did just that.
Aura, while constantly present in the body, did not actually move unless specific condition occurred. When activated, they just appeared encasing the body with intent of protecting the user. They only move when: 1) The body is harmed and Aura would move to the damage part for more repair efficiency, 2) The user wills it to move—may require extensive training, 3) They move accordingly to the user's mental condition, 4) They move in accordance to the user's Semblance.
The kind of movement—circulation—the one that Senior Xiao suggested was the moving of Aura from the heart and then around the body, just like how blood circulation works. Ruby finished it and she had to admit, her Aura felt weird. If she had to make a comparison, it felt like downing a spoonful of raw grains without water.
She informed the office about it and got confirmation from the others, "Then what does this mean?"
All heads seek Xiao for answer. "Not entirely sure myself. The only thing I'm one hundred percent sure is the presence of another energy that tries to connect with our Aura. And no, you can't block it; it is present in every inch of this place. We can experiment more but—wait, Ermes!" Followed by a harsh caw from the crow.
John and Ruby immediately turned to their leader after hearing the urgency in Xiao's voice and crow's cae, and for good reason. Her left forearm coated with Aura to the point of glowing before immediately dying out, leaving a grimace on the leader's face.
"Ermes... why do you always do this to me?"
The leader nonchalantly shrugged and removed her jacket. She rolled her sleeve and what appeared there shocked Ruby, but only got raised eyebrows from the remaining two and a small caw from the avian. Ermessia's left forearm looked normal, aside from the black crystals growing on it. Ruby's Aura went off immediately as it responded to her emotion.
She moved her damaged arm around. Up, down, swing, clench, and unclench, while the entire office watched, Ruby even expected the arm to explode.
"It's... not that bad actually. Just some itch and a bit of soreness. Other than that it's nothing harmful, for now."
Xiao inspected it, "We should keep our Aura off. Sounds good?" John and Ermessia nodded, seeing nothing wrong with the statement, Ruby was different though.
"But—but... how do we fight?"
"They didn't teach you how to fight without Aura?" Asked the blond haired senior.
"Well—we have Auraless combat class, but it's only students versus students! And the point of the class wasn't about fighting, but the refining of Aura control! We never had actual field experience with fighting completely without Aura. The closest we had was being overwhelmed until our Aura depleted and resorting to hit and run to kill the Grimm horde!"
"Then all you have to do is think on your feet!" Her leader exclaimed, "Improvise with the tools you have. Adapt to the situation at hands. Overcome the obstacles before you! That is the mindset every hunter should live by in order to survive!"
"We know that! But most of the time we have Aura! Can't we just use Aura for passive defense and abandon the rest?"
It's Xiao's turn to sigh, "Ruby... what is the first response of a trained Hunter when they anticipate incoming damage?"
It took Ruby a few second to form an answer, "We instinctively cover the area with more Aura..."
"Exactly. And with Ermes' hand as proof, we can conclude that excess of Aura in one place can cause crystal growth. This essentially ban all advance abilities regarding Aura, only leaving the passive protection—which is very risky—and our storage gloves—our inventory."
She was about to let out another argument, but Senior Ermessia stepped forward and cupped her cheeks with the damaged hand, "Listen Ruby, you are a Hunter, not a Hunter in training. This is your first official mission as a Hunter. Act like a Hunter, use the knowledge from Beacon as your weapons and prove to the world that Ruby Rose is an excellent Hunter!" She paused, letting her words sink into Ruby's mind before adding, "I heard a vow before we enter. A conviction, filled with determination to strive forward. Were my ears wrong?"
"No!"
"Recite your vow, Ruby Rose."
"Yes Ma'am! This I say: I will stay and I will fight! No one shall sully the name of Rose once I reach the top. This is where I begin my story and I will write it to the end!" Once more, Ruby felt powerful after saying her vow and her previous attitude ashamed her. How could she achieved her dream when all she did was worrying over everything and not taking action?
Satisfied with the answer, the Index leader released her junior and wore her suit jacket. The crow took flight and stayed behind them, observing and recording.
The Index Office wasted no time and immediately formed their formation. The distance was two kilometers, therefore it would take roughly half an hour with their pace. They could run, but walking would save more energy and they could survey the area in more detail, just in case something decided to spring forth from the snow.
Ruby initially wanted to ask more about the Distortion in general, but the small speech from her leader and the renewed conviction made her rethink her action. It was not an appropriate time, this was the middle of a mission; focus on the mission. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. She would do just that. As such it was better idea relocating her brainpower into analyzing how the Index Office conducted themselves in the field.
Ruby positioned herself to the left of Senior Ermessia, right behind the wall known as Johnathan Amsel and Xiao Steel. Assuming her leader was a generalist, Ruby could picture how this composition favored them by a large margin against singular enemy.
Senior John would either block or parry the coming attack then Senior Xiao would swoop in with her devastating blow, as for herself and her leader they could shoot, providing distraction for Senior Xiao. The reverse also applied. Senior John and Xiao would provide distraction with Ruby and Senior Ermessia aiming for lethal shots.
How about open area? The first factor of concern was mobility, in which Ruby was confident she would rank the highest, followed by Senior Xiao, Leader, and Senior John. Assuming Senior Xiao was a better Yang, all three women could sweep a large amount of area by themselves. If they missed some, Senior John would be the guy to rectify that mistake. They could also bait high profile enemies to Senior John and applied the parry and attack tactic. If Senior John has more tricks, he could solo them no problem.
A solid team even before her enlistment.
"Hey Xiao, you feel anything from that?" They had been walking for a while and the figure was starting to get visible. As Senior John said before, it was a child. A boy with white military uniform befitting of an Atlesian Army, and if her eyes were correct, the boy had the rank of a captain.
Senior Xiao signed them to stop, "Yes. That boy is the core of this Distortion."
"How about the crystal pillars?"
Xiao closed her eyes for a few seconds before reopening them, "Victims. Presumably the VSS and Bleak Office."
"Hmmm... Any idea what caused the transformation besides severe trauma and unstable Aura?"
"Wait, what?" Her other seniors seemed to actually thing about the question before answering in the negative. "Wait, wait. What transformation?"
Her leader delivered an answer, "This might sound shocking, but Distortion is born from things that have soul. Including, but not limited to, humans, fauns, animals, plants, even things that originally didn't have soul but was imbued with. Obviously, there are other factors at play since we still exist and not becoming a Distortion."
"But—but, that would mean we will murder a kid."
"That's not a kid Ruby, not anymore. Once you become a Distortion, your physical and spiritual makeup can go beyond the logic of the world, making you a supernatural existence, which instantly put you into The Council's shit list. There are records of people not going mad from their Distortion, but we got only five in the last eighty years. And that thing might not even be a kid. It could be a grown man turned kid Distortion." She patted her head, "Think of this as part of the job Ruby. We kill that thing, we save more lives. We don't want a [Devil] class outbreak right in the middle of the city."
Ruby stilled after hearing that. Her grip on Harbinger tightened. She took a deep breath and released, "I'll fight, senior."
She smiled proudly at her junior, "Good. Alright team, let's move."
The Index Office resumed their march. The distance between the Distortion and the office was only twenty meters away, which allowed them to gleam more details of it. One, Senior Xiao was right regarding the pillars since body parts were part of them. Two, the kid was small, only one and a half meter tall.
Ruby heard the headmaster's crow flapping its wings and gaining distance from them. Understandable, since according to Senior Ermessia, the job would be messy. The intelligent crow just didn't want to be covered by blood and Dust, and perhaps collect better video by straying away from the center of the fight.
The office reached ten meters distance from the small kid, "Oi, kid. Wanna play?"
The small Distortion opened its eyes—literal blue diamonds—and stared at them with a grin stretching from one end to the other end of its face. Somehow, despite being taller, Ruby had the strangest feeling that this thing was looking down on her.
A.N.
As I have said in the beginning, this is a transition chapter between the prologue and the first battle. And as you have read, this chapter focus on Ruby's perception regarding the situation and the Index Office. I hope this does not feel too rushed. I actually wanted to add the fight here and make this 8k words chapter but I scrapped the idea and move the fighting to the next chapter.
Thank you all of you who have read this far and I wish you all a good day.
